Systems and Methods for Dynamically Controlling Active-to-Dormant Timers in Radio Access Networks

1. A method carried out by a wireless-communication-capable computing system that comprises at least one wireless-communication interface, at least one processor, and data storage containing program instructions executable by the at least one processor for carrying out the method, which comprises: detecting a triggering event, and responsively identifying a current access-channel occupancy (ACHO); increasing an active-to-dormant timer for at least one access terminal when the identified current ACHO exceeds a first threshold; and decreasing an active-to-dormant timer for at least one access terminal when the identified current ACHO is less than a second threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the system is embodied in an access terminal.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the system is embodied in one or more network-side entities in a radio access network (RAN).

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first threshold is equal to the second threshold.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first threshold is greater than the second threshold.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein decreasing the active-to-dormant timer is conditioned upon the active-to-dormant timer being greater than a minimum value.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein increasing the active-to-dormant timer is conditioned upon the active-to-dormant timer being less than a maximum value.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the triggering event includes the elapsing of a periodically resetting timer.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the triggering event comprises receiving a message.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the message is a quick-configuration message having a forward-traffic-valid indicator.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the message indicates a number of traffic channels that are currently in use.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising using the number of traffic channels that are currently in use to estimate a number of traffic channels that are currently assigned.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein identifying the current ACHO comprises using the estimated number of traffic channels that are currently assigned to estimate the current ACHO.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein decreasing the active-to-dormant timer comprises decreasing the active-to-dormant timer by 0.5 seconds.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein increasing the active-to-dormant timer comprises increasing the active-to-dormant timer by 0.5 seconds.

16. A computing system comprising: a wireless-communication interface; a processor; and data storage containing program instructions executable by the processor for carrying out a set of functions, wherein the set of functions includes: detecting a triggering event, and responsively identifying a current access-channel occupancy (ACHO); increasing an active-to-dormant timer for at least one access terminal when the identified current ACHO exceeds a first threshold; and decreasing an active-to-dormant timer for at least one access terminal when the identified current ACHO is less than a second threshold.

17. The computing system of claim 16 , wherein decreasing the active-to-dormant timer is conditioned upon the active-to-dormant timer being greater than a minimum value.

18. The computing system of claim 16 , wherein decreasing the active-to-dormant timer comprises decreasing the active-to-dormant timer by 0.5 seconds.

19. The computing system of claim 16 , wherein identifying the current ACHO comprises deriving a value from data received by an access terminal.

20. The computing system of claim 16 , wherein identifying the current ACHO comprises receiving a value from a radio access network (RAN).